Extravagant Pack Lunches

Not absurd at all. Better than day-in day-out pasta and ultraprocessed vegan sausages my school serve, or the crisps-chocolate bar combo very frequent ly part of packed lunches too. I send my children with packed lunches that other might consider extravagant - none of their business .

You BU and judgey.

Why are you obsessing over packed lunches? Have you nothing better to do? Our lunchtime supervisors are way too busy dealing with what kids are doing to pass judgement on their food.

In your position I’d be more worried about the poverty gap and the effect on the disadvantaged students’ education.

acco to surveys, the average oackec lunch in the uk is

• white bread sandwich with ham, cheese or chicken
• crisps
• penguin bar or similar
• 1 piece if fruit

Are you a TA for my child?! 😂 We send him in with a bento box with fruit, veggies with hummus or sour cream dip, some home made cake or banana bread, Greek yoghurt and then main would be salmon and avocado wrap, tuna pasta, mac and cheese in a thermos box.
We eat this food at home, it’s better than the processed rubbish they serve at school. Not sure how we are berating parents who teach their kids good eating habits young?

I used to send the kids in with a similar lunch at a similar age - as a single working mum with a small income at that point it was a good way to get solid nutrition into fussy eaters. Most of my lunch ingredients for the family came from yellow label markdown - including smoked salmon, deli meats, bagels and tiger rolls - and then would be frozen down until we needed them. Would do the same lunch for all of us in different portions and use cookie cutters and chopped herbs to make things a bit interesting. Bento boxes made sense as less wrapping to bin. Tiny tubs of dip made things better for fussy eaters. Chances are that your good looking lunch box comes from a home without much disposable income that has had to get inventive.

Nothing wrong with eating good food, far better than much of the ultra processed foods that children are fed today. Some families just eat well and their parents might prefer to carry that on in school lunches. I remember when my two were in infant school and needed a packed lunch sometimes and I’d send them in with vegetable egg fried rice and strips of roast chicken as well as carrot sticks and houmous etc…it wasn’t to outdo other kids, it’s what they eat usually at home..

I took packed lunch to school for the entire time there. I would have loved something like that. Instead it was either a cheese or ham sandwich with a chocolate biscuit. Another child once commented, “that’s not much to have”. No it wasn’t and my school days remind me of being hungry all day. I rarely eat sandwiches these days because they bring back bad memories of school. So, that child is lucky to have parents who care about them so much.

When I was younger, so much younger than today, my Mum went to visit her brother in New York. She brought back loads of cool stuff not available in 70s beige Britain, including a Star Wars lunchbox. I absolutely was the talk of all the dinner ladies

I used to hand make my DD sushi for hers when she had some strict dietary requirements. It sounds ott but if its what the child wants and will eat, is healthy and works for that family than so what? Its better than processed cheese and a bunch of other upfs in the typical lunchbox!

It's a pack lunch made by someone with a relatively higher budget and more time to spare but it's a healthy lunch and I'm pleased to hear children are eating like that

Nobody likes judgy school staff. Especially when they're judging the most ridiculous things ever. They're being fed, what's the issue?

If I could afford it I would it to give my children too!

My daughter isn’t a fan of school dinners but also doesn’t like a cold packed lunch. She’s had salmon stir fry, steak and sweet potato chunks with veg and a rice dish of some sort for her lunch before. It’s what she likes to eat. If I do pack my kids a lunch I try to avoid lots of pre packed bits or processed foods. They eat a lot of fruit & veg at home so why wouldn’t I give them that at school. They have a treat but usually save it for after school time. Good for the parent in this case I say. Better than a cold McDonald’s that I’ve seen in one child’s lunch box before!

Our school when I've been in the hall on my volunteer days
95% of the children have Sandwich/ bagel/ crackers/ pitta , A packet of Crisps, fruit, yoghurt and a small bar of chocolate, kit kat or similar or the likes of mini maryland/ party rings.
The rest have things like a cold pasta in a bento box with a couple of snacks / fruit.

I always tried to give my child the best lunches I could at nursery. I worked at the school office where the nursery was and actually had some of the teachers come into the office and say, can you make us some lunch as his looked delicious and he eats it too!

I worked really hard on introducing new flavours and healthy attitudes to food. It wasn’t trying to be snobby, it was just getting him used to proper food. Wasn’t quite at the level of steak or salmon, but still a healthy bento box that didn’t cost a fortune.

OTOH she eats cucumber as if it is going out of fashion 😂 never any problem with cucumber, and cucumber and naturak yoghurt dip never got wasted. And not expensive

And veg sticks plus a dip is hardly extravagant!

Guess what...some families might be greek and eat greek food (or insert culture here....). Go figure?

I used to do a 'fancy' bento box because DD wouldn't eat a 'standard' sandwich. Occasionally if I used cookie cutters to turn them into interesting shaped nibbles. Or maybe sliced into pinwheels.

So a variety of small portions of various foods, nicely presented.

Including things like marinated olives, because they would get calories into her. In reality the portion sizes of e.g. smoked salmon are quite small, so in themselves not expensive. Especially if bought reduced because expiring, and frozen in lunch sized portions.

Before DD I used to believe that children would eat anything reasonable if hungry enough. But DD doesn't, and the challenge has always been to get enough food into her.

Haha! DH was a bit overzealous with the figs to make up for all the times there’s never any left in the shop! For balance, we also love a fig roll here. Best biscuit.

My daughter packs her own bento box and would include these things if the ingredients were available in the fridge or we had leftover quiche etc. It usually includes some form of hummus/dip with veg sticks, fruit salad, pasta salad or wrap. She’s really into brie and rye bread at present so you might think I was over the top too but she makes it all herself.

Well @Diadrie has certainly had their arse handed to them on a plate on this thread!

I might be reading this wrong, but I’m seeing the OP as more jealous than judgemental. If I were the OP’s employer, as she’s a TA, I’d be upset by her misuse of language.

Smoked salmon trimmings are like £2.50 and a little bit goes a long way in a child’s bagel, cream cheese is very reasonable unbranded. A quiche is easy to make and cheap and likely to be cut from the previous evening’s dinner. Sounds a nice lunch to me, and not at all ridiculous.

DGD is ten months and will eat most things from calamari to cottage cheese. New flavour yesterday was a just ripe plum from my tree. Stick it in front of them when they’re young and they’re more likely to develop a taste for it instead of junk.

Please don't sneer at a 5 year old's lunch box.

Those are perfectly normal family cooked-a-bit-extra-for-the-lunches meals.